Do you frame your own work?

[littleturtlegirl]

Do you frame your own work? If so what type of foam board do you use? Does it need to be acid free?

Also if you do frame your own pieces, how do you do it? I would love to hear about it, see pictures or videos.

Thank you guys in advance!

[crosstitcher1]

Yes. I have been framing mine since 1989.
"If" I have time when I do this year's projects, 15 total, I will "try" to post my tips on my website, http://www.crosstitcherjean.com." target="_blank, the 2nd. week of Dec.
I use "sticky boards" that I purchase at my needle shop, when I go on Black Fri. in Nov., to get all my framing supplies and the next years supplies on the projects that I have lined up for the year. They cut to what I need. They used to buy them already cut, but found it "less expensive" for them to cut their own.
Once you get the "hang" of doing it yourself, you feel like you have accomplished another part of this hoby. GL in doing it.

HAPPY STITCHING IN STITCHING LAND.

[NeedleAndFork]

I did a simple frame on one of my pieces last year.



There's no mat surrounding it, and no glass either, but essentially I laced it onto a stiff piece of cardboard with a piece of batting between the fabric and cardboard and popped it into the frame. I did take detailed photos of the process including how I got it absolutely straight and even but I would have to dig them out from where ever I saved them. I suppose eventually I might do a series of blog posts on the framing process. A single post would be ridiculously long with all the photos I took!

[fccs]

I have a few pieces at the framers now, but I have also done my own framing and mat cutting. I haven't cut mats for a long time, but when I was, it wasn't that hard. (I only did square and rectangular...no circles or ovals.) I mount my work on foam core and I much prefer pinning over lacing.

[richardandtracy]

Is there any chance of someone showing the back of a laced picture on its board?

I think I know what you're supposed to do, but having neither seen a picture nor a real one, I'm none too certain. I have a 30" x 19" picture I want to lace onto a 3mm thick mounting board, and want to be sure I'm doing the lacing frequently enough. Left to my own devices I'd do it every 10 stitches and still be worried about buckling the board due to its size.

Regards,

Richard.

[littleturtlegirl]

Thank you guys for all the great information. I will check out the blog crossstitcher1 and thank you so much for posting a picture NeedleAndFork. After watching the following video I can not imagine how many pictures you would have to post.

This is the video that I first watched that shows how to lace your pieces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGajH991q_c&list=WL" target="_blank

I have contacted this person to see if she would post a video on how she frames her pieces as she frames a lot of her own work and she has mentioned that she laces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al2gURKuAd4" target="_blank

[richardandtracy]

Ahh.

So a stapler won't do..

Thanks for those links. I keep forgetting about youtube, until fairly recently our connection was so slow we had to buffer the video for as long as it was to avoid hiccups in the showing. It was somewhat irritating.

The first video showed that spacing to be about every 0.5", so a bit closer than I was going to do. Much appreciated.

Regards,

Richard.

[littleturtlegirl]

Richard, I have become a youtube junky! There are a bunch of stitchers on youtube and I am learning a TON from them! I do not watch tv and stitch any longer I instead stitch and watch youtube of stitches.

Oh and a stapler will not work I don't think.

[NeedleAndFork]

Thank you guys for all the great information. I will check out the blog crossstitcher1 and thank you so much for posting a picture NeedleAndFork. After watching the following video I can not imagine how many pictures you would have to post.

This is the video that I first watched that shows how to lace your pieces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGajH991q_c&list=WL" target="_blank" target="_blank

I have contacted this person to see if she would post a video on how she frames her pieces as she frames a lot of her own work and she has mentioned that she laces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al2gURKuAd4" target="_blank" target="_blank

I didn't watch the whole video, but skipped around a bit on it to get an idea of what she was doing. For thread, I used denim thread - that kinda brown thread that is used to sew jeans. It's much stronger than sewing thread and being more tightly spun than even pearl cotton, it has even less stretch, which I think is important if you're lacing a piece. Also, it's much cheaper, so you don't feel bad about cutting really long peices of it and wasting a bunch of it once you tighten up the lacing.

Another thing is to make lacing easier, instead of starting at one end, start in the middle using only half the thread that you cut. In the video, she made a slip knot at the end of the thread, it would be just as easy to tie the slip knot in the middle of the cut piece of thread and lace from the middle to one edge, then go back, pull the slip knot free and lace the other half. The advantage of this is you're not pulling the ENTIRE length of thread through (which is pretty long) right from the start, but only half the length. In fact, you could even go as far as unwinding what you think will be enough thread from the spool, not cutting it but putting in a slip knot and then lacing half the piece. This way if you underestimated, you can release the slip knot, unwind more thread and pull it through bit by bit so you've got more thread at the end. Once you've got one half finished, you have an estimate of how much thread you'll need to do half the piece, so unwind that much more (and a bit extra for insurance) form the spool and cut to lace the remaining half.

[NeedleAndFork]

Ok, here we go - I dug through my photos and found the ones I shot while framing the above piece so I uploaded a few of them at key points. Mind you, these are raw shots, I haven't gone in and edited to straighten them or fix lighting on them yet. Clicky each image to see the full sized version.

Because I was using a basic photo frame I bought at Target, I used the glass as a guide for measuring off the edges around the stitching and to make sure it would be centered in the frame. I used a bit of thread to mark the half way point on each side, and marked a corresponding half way point on the backing.


Fabric pinned to the backing with a layer of thin batting cut to the same size as the backing and glued on with a bit of spray adhesive. It was easiest to cut the batting bigger, attach it to the backing and just trim the excess away, rather than worrying about getting it glued on exactly straight. Then I lay the stitching over it and pinned the marked center points on all 4 sides, then continued pinning the entire piece. I probably used too many pins, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to budge or stretch while I laced. At this point make sure the fabric is stretched taut across the batting and that all the pins are in the same row of the fabric so that your piece is blocked straight and not skewed.



The back of the laced piece. After lacing and tightening, remove pins, and admire your handiwork. Stand on a stool so that you're high up enough and take a picture, and make sure to get your toes in the pic

[Arianwen]

I know someone who mounts their work with masking tape - so I think its a case of what works for you.

I lace at whatever frequency 'feels' right - if you don't feel every 10 stitches is enough, do it more often. I don't do it every so many stitches, but then my lacing leaves much to be desired and I often struggle to get it straight.

Also I use crochet cotton to lace with - its what my nana taught me to lace with and I usually use a creamy beige to lace with

[richardandtracy]

I'd be surprised if masking tape is guaranteed acid free, so on a bigger project that you want to last, that would be unfortunate.

I was recommended crochet cotton for the lacing too, so that's what I'll try. If it doesn't work, maybe Denim cotton (if I can find it) or button thread designed for furniture.

Regards,

Richard

[Allyn]

... If so what type of foam board do you use? Does it need to be acid free?.....

It should be, but like any other aspect of this hobby, it doesn't *have* to be. The acid present in regular foam board, mat board, cardboard and other like products will eventually discolor the threads and fabric and it will weaken them making them fragile to the point they'll start to break down. Some products are worse than others, but if they're not acid-free, you'll eventually have a problem. If you want to 'do it right,' use acid-free everything that touches the needlework including the mount board and mat. If it doesn't matter whether or not it lasts for decades, don't worry about it not being acid-free and just use whatever.

[curly sue]

My aunt used masking tape. I think that was before I had ever heard of acid free anything for heirlooms.

[hollywould89]

is it true that you need spacers between the cross stitch and the glass? i made a cross stitch for my stepdad for father's day and framed it myself, but i've come across a couple articles saying that spacers might be needed. i spent a year working on it so the last thing i want is for it to get moldy!

[Allyn]

is it true that you need spacers between the cross stitch and the glass? i made a cross stitch for my stepdad for father's day and framed it myself, but i've come across a couple articles saying that spacers might be needed. i spent a year working on it so the last thing i want is for it to get moldy!

If you use mats, that's usually enough to hold the glass away from the fibers. if you're not using mats, it would be a good idea to use spacers to keep the stitches from touching the glass.

[monic39]

I let it framed by a shop that is specialised in framing cross stitch. I buy a mounting board and frame at that shop and they frame it perfectly. The price depends on wich frame and mounting board you choose but its prob. 75-100 dollar (piece 40x45 cm)